


Collaborative

by Iritvea



Category: Dangan Ronpa, Super Dangan Ronpa 2
Genre: F/M, Pre-Despair, crowded school, innuendos
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-17
Updated: 2016-10-17
Packaged: 2018-08-22 21:11:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8301247
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Iritvea/pseuds/Iritvea
Summary: One fine evening at Hope's Peak leads Touko and Byakuya to wander the school in search of a place befitting some extracurricular activities.





	

There was much on Touko’s mind as she trudged to the library. A restlessness welled up within her and drove her on what any other day she might have deemed a dangerous course.

She threw open the library door with a force that surprised her. The room was empty of classmates, save for the one person she’d known would be there.

Seated sideways at the table with his legs stretched out and a book in front of him was Byakuya. Bathed in the glow of the lamp near him, he looked regal, imposing, and handsome as he always did. Touko’s breath hitched in her throat as she studied him for a moment, then she continued forward, willing herself to be more courageous today and hoping it might pay off.

Byakuya’s eyes met hers and he held up a finger, halting her in her tracks, before he pressed it to the bridge of his glasses and slid them up his nose. He was silent for another moment while Touko watched his eyes moving back and forth to scan the words on the page.

Finally, he closed the book and glanced her direction. 

“That was disappointing,” he stated, throwing Touko off-guard. It took a minute for her to work out that he was talking about the book. “Hardly a satisfactory ending.” He closed his eyes and a self-satisfied smirk played on his features, “But I’ve come to expect that from the caliber of books in this library…”

His eyes opened, and landed on her with a certain precision. Touko jumped a bit internally and fumbled for an explanation as to what she was doing there, just in case he should ask. If he did, she wanted to be able to say something possibly a bit more tactful and coy than what was actually motivating her to stand in his presence this day.

“Fukawa,” Byakuya’s voice cut sharply through her thoughts. “I am sure you are familiar with every title in this library, your talent being what it is…” He looked bemused as he tacked on what was possibly a request but came out an order, “Suggest me a new book to read-- One that won’t disappoint.”

Touko stilled, watching him. The amusement faded from his features in the subsequent seconds, enough to prompt her to speak.

“W-Well,” breathed Touko, feeling her mouth going dry as she internally debated whether or not to act on the thought that came to mind. “T-There is a book I could recommend…”

“What would that be?” Byakuya looked like his attention was maybe starting to wane, so Touko decided to take a leap. 

“I-It’s 473.81…” Touko recited, being careful with the inflection in her tone.

Byakuya stared. His eyebrows slowly drew up, and Touko suspected she had caught him off guard by using the NDC.

“In the sciences?”

Touko nodded, feeling her lips twitch as she waited to see what he would do.

“Interesting,” pronounced Byakuya.

“Sh-shall I go get it for you?” Touko asked, but by the time the last word left her mouth, Byakuya had risen from his chair.

“No need. I can certainly track down your suggestion since you were so kind as to pinpoint its exact decimal number…” His eyes met hers, sparkling and paired with a smirk. “I must admit your tactic has piqued my interest…”

Touko held herself still while Byakuya departed to the corresponding section. He returned seconds later with a book in hand and a look of consternation on his face.

“Mating Rituals in the Animal Kingdom,” he said flatly. He paused at the edge of the table and stared down at Touko, weighing the book in one hand. His face was unreadable for a second. Next, he closed his eyes and allowed a smirk to spread across it, “All right, Fukawa, since that was reasonably clever, I’ll ‘play ball,’” He opened his eyes and fixed Touko with a startling glance. “Since you claim to be versed in the subject, how exactly would you describe a mating ritual were you to feature it in a novel?”

Touko flushed and pressed her fingers together, “W-well, if I ever wrote such a thing, Byakuya-sama, I… have a few signs that I include… based on research, of course…”

“Of course,” he drawled.

She didn’t look up, but she could feel his gaze on her, prompting her for more. She thought she heard him take a step.

“U-Usually, it starts with the couple getting closer…”

“Obviously,” Byakuya’s voice cut through, “It’d be awfully hard to make that work any other way…”

There were definitely sounds of footsteps this time, and since the room was otherwise empty they had to be his. Touko was now aware of Byakuya’s legs in her field of vision and followed them down to his shoes resting not more than two tiles away.

“What else?” He prompted, voice softening.

“U-uhm I do some of it through dialogue…” she raised her head to meet his eyes, the intensity of which made her start a bit. “With subtleties that build… tension…”

“Paired, I trust, with some description of the physical actions that could be taken…”

He took another step forward.

“Y-Yes… increasing in… “

Their course was halted as the library door was thrown open with enough force to shake the table and much of the room. A loud exasperated noise, a little too indelicate to be called a “sigh,” echoed throughout the room, followed by a rough greeting from none other than Mondo Oowada.

He ambled in the doorway, cradling a very large stack of books and looking relatively preoccupied, “Hey guys, didn’t know you were here…”

Touko had been relatively sure about where the prior scene had been heading, and was less-than-pleased at the thought that it would end with their classmate’s intrusion, especially when she observed that it caused Byakuya to slide back a step and angle away from her.

“That’s awfully inobservant of you. _I’m_ always here,” he hissed at Mondo.

Mondo simply shifted the books to one arm and scratched the side of his face with a finger from the hand this freed.

“Right… You guys actually like readin’ and all that shit…”

Touko was about to fire off a particularly cutting insult, but before she could say anything, Mondo made his way to the table near them and dropped the stack of books on it with a thud.

“Listen, I didn’t come here to start shit. I gotta study.” He punctuated this by yanking out a chair, flipping it around and sitting the wrong way in it so that his elbows rested on the back of the chair as he cracked a book over the table. “Ishimaru is coming to help me in a bit, but since you two are here, maybe you can explain some of these graphs or something, yeah?”

In lieu of saying ‘no,’ Touko made a low, disgruntled noise and rose from her seat, prepared to slink off back to her dorm for the night.

“We can’t stay,” Byakuya announced, and his inclusion of Touko caused her to stop and turn around. She surveyed him, trying to assess what he was doing, and was surprised when he, with an artfully unreadable face, informed Mondo that they had to go elsewhere to work on a project of their own.

Elation bubbled up inside Touko. Mondo didn’t appear to question Byakuya’s statement, only responding with one brief, awkward utterance as his attention returned to the book.

“Okay, well, I mean, do what you gotta do… Guess I’ll just wait for Ishimaru.”  

Touko’s brow furrowed as Byakuya walked past her. She assumed she was to follow him out of the library, but beyond that was anyone’s guess.

She erred on the side of the discrete, keeping her head tucked and eyes mostly on his shoulders and the back of his head… mostly… until they were outside the library with the door firmly closed behind them.

“I hope you’re not dissuaded by these events…” he said suddenly as they stood in the hallway. He turned and placed himself directly in front of Touko, who responded by backing into the door. That trademark self-confident smirk of his spread across his face as he added, “While the exhibitionist aspect of attempting physical intimacy of any sort in a frequented space has a faint appeal and would make a decent backdrop in some sort of low-grade fiction, it is lacking in practicality…”

Touko stared.

Byakuya turned his head away, glancing down the hall, “We’d be far better off in your dormitory.”

“M-my dormitory?” the words popped out of Touko’s mouth in shock.

Byakuya peered down his nose at her, “Are you going to make me repeat myself?” He paused, then, “Or did you change your mind? I thought I had parsed out your intentions from the moment you entered the library, and pairing them with your usual declarations…”

“I-I didn’t change my mind, Byakuya-sama! I-I’m happy to be with you a-anywhere!” Touko hastily spit out.

“If that’s the case, then don’t delay. We’ll take separate paths and meet at your dormitory. You are to go in first, then let me in, understand?”

Touko nodded.

“Good,” said Byakuya.

Touko hung on his last word long after Byakuya departed. She turned and padded her way to her dormitory, glowing inside and with a smile on her face that caused Sayaka Maizono to stop her by the infirmary and ask her what she was happy about. Touko managed a quick, articulate version of ‘none of your business,’ and hurried on past.

She buzzed by the first-floor classrooms and ducked through the gate to the dormitory wing. She was prepared to make a beeline for her room when she sighted a mass of people gathered in the hallway and slowed to a stop.

Junko Enoshima stood at the center of the hall, halfway between Touko and Byakuya’s doors with her hands on her hips, watching Aoi walk in a very stilted, un-Aoi-like manner down the hallway. The other students involved in… whatever it was they were doing… watched her and Junko intently. Some electronic music coming from a boombox laid out on the floor reverberated throughout the hall and into the open space.

Aoi finished the uncomfortable-looking walk down the hall and turned to Junko, “I did it! What’s my time?”

Celestia Ludenberg, standing off to the side by the wall, flattened a hand to her face, “Asahina dear, you don’t time it…”

Aoi scanned the crowd with a look on her face that Touko interpreted as ‘why not?’ before Junko stepped over and clapped an arm around Aoi’s shoulders, waving a finger in her face.

“You forgot the three-quarter turn at the end…” she said in a chiding tone, “but seeing as you’re new at this, I’ll let it slide… How about you, Oogami-san?”

Sakura Oogami moved from where she’d been standing against the other wall and swapped places with Aoi, minus the Junko embrace. Touko didn’t have time to see how she did at… whatever it was… before a low voice sounded behind her.

“It seems we require a change of plans,” came the voice, which Touko identified as being a relatively irate Byakuya. “Don’t turn around,” he instructed, “Don’t make any indication that you can hear me… Just meet me on the third floor.”

Touko thought to nod but caught herself as his instructions rolled through her head again. She waited until she heard footsteps, which she assumed were Byakuya’s, heading away from her. After the footsteps were gone, she counted to five and then took off back through the dorm gate.

Many curving hallways and two sets of stairs later, Touko caught sight of Byakuya heading down the hall to the Physics Lab. Without being conspicuous, Touko tried to put on a burst of speed to catch up with him. At the L-bend before the sliding doors, Byakuya slowed, then stopped, and turned to face Touko.

He was leaning against the wall when Touko finally closed the distance between them.

With a nod towards the Physics Lab door, he commented, “This isn’t my ideal setting… but I can’t imagine with our classmates having other obligations at this time on a weekday evening they’d have much reason to enter this place.”

Touko felt a smile on her face, “W-We should have it all to ourselves…”

“Don’t get ahead of yourself,” murmured Byakuya. “We’re going to check it first, and then if anyone is in there, the story is that you and I have a project to work on.”  

Touko nodded. Byakuya stepped forward into the automatic doors and when they opened to reveal a strikingly empty physics lab, Touko was quietly delighted.

Byakuya paced around a half-constructed device in the center of the room – some project of one of the upperclassmen- and Touko followed.

“It appears…” a subtle grin crept on to Byakuya’s face, “We do have this place to ourselves...” His gaze fell on her and made her shiver a bit with anticipation. This intensified in the next minute, when he placed himself very close to her and uttered in a low voice, “Tell me, what would you like to do first?”

Touko, who had never dreamed that she would be asked such a question, grappled with determining the appropriateness of a vast number of things she wanted to suggest. As a plethora of glorious images floated through her mind, she was suddenly made aware of a flickering light moving around in the crack under the supply closet door.

Byakuya’s brow furrowed at her hesitation, and before she could say anything, he had followed her gaze to the flickering light source. The flickering was suddenly accompanied by dull murmurs, and Touko watched Byakuya tense, before laughter on the other side sent him bolting to the door.

Touko was a few paces behind as Byakuya yanked the door to the storage room open, drenching the inside in the stark lighting from the main lab. This illuminated the faces of Chihiro Fujisaki, Hifumi Yamada, Kazuichi Souda, and Sonia Nevermind, all gathered on the floor of the closet in a semicircle around Yasuhiro Hagakure and his crystal ball

Yasuhiro cupped a hand over his brow as he squinted into the light. “Oi, Togami-chi!” he cried out upon seeing Byakuya, then his eyes flitted to Touko, “Did you guys come for the demonstration?”

The look of horror that had been on Byakuya’s face faded just enough that he could look like he was moderately offended at having stumbled upon this gathering.

“Demonstration?” He repeated.

Sonia sat up and clapped her hands together, “Hagakure-san is giving us what is called a ‘spiritual sampler!’ Would you care to join us?”

As it seemed, neither Byakuya nor Touko could manage the ‘no’ that would have been, in Touko’s estimation, far too soft to adequately convey the frustration running through her veins. They stood there, all-but-agape, Touko fuming internally, and Byakuya clearly recalculating.

After an agonizing moment, Byakuya recovered, “I have barely any interest in communing with the likes of you… I have even less in anything that could be presented to me as a result of this buffoon’s ridiculous sales pitch.”

Touko snickered.

Yasuhiro clasped a hand over his chest, “That stings, Togami-chi!”

Kazuichi clambered up onto his knees so he could yell over the top of Sonia’s head, “Then what are you two doing here, anyway?”

“A project,” Byakuya answered tersely. “Unlike the five of you, Fukawa and I have been making productive use of this time.”

With that last statement, Byakuya closed the door on five confused and possibly insulted faces and turned back to Fukawa. His scowl gradually morphed into a simple frown and Touko could see the gears turning in his mind.

“We’ll have to try upstairs,” he said finally, decisively. Then, he sighed, and rather bitterly added, “I don’t suppose you happen to like flowers?”

The botanical garden, which was where they ended up next, was far from any of Touko’s ideals, but she realized Byakuya must have been banking on it being empty once they got inside. Empty it was, but it also reeked, was unpleasantly humid, and didn’t have many suitable places to sit, let alone do anything else.

She supposed this was why Byakuya, after a few minutes pacing around the garden walkways and wrinkling his nose at nearly everything, made his way to the entrance of the small shed and opened the door.

He took a moment to look inside, and then withdrew to inform her, “There’s no one in here…”

Touko drummed her fingers together and didn’t say anything, until Byakuya made to head inside.

“Y-You want to… in there?”

Byakuya reemerged from the shed with an expression of distaste plastered over his features, “ _Want_ is an overly strong word for it…” he said, “I would much prefer the sanctity of a bedroom or even a classroom, but the classroom doors are all locked at this time, Enoshima has some sort of assembly set up by our rooms, and though this construction is unquestionably lacking in charm, sanitation and workmanship… it is the one place we have found where we are least likely to be disturbed.”

Fukawa brought a hand up to her mouth and chewed on her thumbnail.

“Is there a problem?” Byakuya asked.

“T-There’s no light in there…”

Byakuya stared.

“I-I’m afraid of the dark…” Touko explained.

Byakuya’s eyebrows drew up, “You’re serious?”

Touko nodded, warily eyeing the shed.

Byakuya sighed and peered into the dark entrance, “I gather, based on the way you’ve ceased speaking when ordinarily you’d be apt to fill me in with generous details, that this is linked to something of a nature you’d rather not discuss.” He shook his head, and then looked up at the shed one final time. “Fine then,” he said decisively, and pulled the shed door shut behind him, “Not here.”

Touko smiled. Byakuya looked at her with an expression on his face she hadn’t quite seen before, and it seemed to gradually melt into something else, until…

“Who has invaded the sacred space? Show yourself!”

Byakuya and Touko instinctively pivoted to face the entrance to the garden, where the exclamation had come from, to find that kid from the other class, the one with the scarf covering a good half of his face, who Touko hadn’t cared to learn the name of, standing with his palms pressed together and a wide, theatrical stance.

“It is unwise to be standing so close to the sanctuary! State your business, mortals!”

Byakuya’s face quickly curled into a rather nasty scowl, and Touko wasn’t far behind him, but the upperclassman didn’t seem intimidated by either of them. Rather, in the absence of an answer, he seemed intent on guessing what they were doing.

“Have you come to witness the ritual?” he asked, moving forward with his hands still pressed together. “If so, I commend you on your bravery, even if it is foolish…”

Byakuya hissed, “What are you talking about?”

The upperclassman didn’t give anything in the way of an answer. He simply dropped a knee to the ground and laid his hands on the path, opening them up to reveal a verifiable mountain of sunflower seeds.

“My Four Dark Devas of Destruction, come forth and feast on the life-giving death seeds!”

Before Touko could take issue with anything from his sudden intrusion to the ‘life-giving death seeds,’ a kind of scratching sound rose up from different places around them, meeting Touko’s ears just as she became aware of four small balls of fur racing alongside them on the path. At a point just a few feet in front of her and Byakuya, the furballs, which Touko soon determined to be hamsters, traced a line to the center of the room where they seized on the pile of sunflower seeds in their classmate’s hands. He laughed uproariously as the blobs of fur ate from his palms. 

Touko returned her gaze to Byakuya’s face to find that a look of sheer offense had settled on it.

He looked at her and gestured to the door, “We’re leaving.”

To Touko’s surprise, Byakuya took her arm by the elbow this time, and led her, firmly with a certain urgency, past their kneeling classmate, and out into the hall.

He released his grip once they were outside and folded his arms across his chest, pacing over to the wall and directing a glare down at the flooring.

“M-Maybe we can go to the dorms?” Touko suggested, beginning to feel desperate. “E-Enoshima must be done by now.”

Byakuya raised his head, “Given the experience we have had thus far, I would wager against it… but…” He glanced at her over his shoulder, “If you are truly intent on continuing this course, I can think of another option we may try…”  

Touko nodded and Byakuya smiled.

“Follow me, then…”

Touko followed to the first floor of the school, where she was very disappointed to find Enoshima still hosting the afterschool club doing whatever it was… Byakuya, however, didn’t seem fazed, and opted instead to head for the dining hall, which Touko found odd until she heard his reasoning.

They were alone in the dining area when he explained, “There is a rather sizable food pantry at the back of this kitchen. Obviously, I am not thrilled for our activities to be relegated to such a place, but there is a light inside it, and it is spacious enough to contain us both.”

He glanced back at her, briefly, before heading towards the kitchen.

“We just might have to… expedite the process… since the kitchen closes in half an hour.”

Touko nodded, flushing and feeling a bead of drool on her lip.

Byakuya passed through the door to the kitchen and Touko followed eagerly—so eager, in fact, that she nearly ran into Byakuya when he stopped a few feet inside.  

When Touko took a step back and to the right, she could see why he had stopped.

“Oh ho ho! Togami Byakuya and Fukawa Touko!” exclaimed Teruteru Hanamura, turning from something he was doing by the sink and wiping his hands on his apron. “It’s not often I have _guests_ in the kitchen this late. To what do I owe the pleasure?”

Byakuya’s lip curled, and Touko guessed he had about as much distaste for the ‘chef’ as she did.

“I came here to procure a cup of coffee to take with me to the library. I have no time to waste with you.”

Teruteru seemed remarkably un-put-off in the face of Byakuya’s statement, “Understood, Togami Byakuya, understood… and _her?_ ”

Byakuya threw a glance over his shoulder at Touko, causing her to start. “Fukawa, what _are_ you doing here?” he prompted.

Touko swallowed. “I m-missed dinner, so I-I- I came to get something to eat,” she managed, feeling fairly secure in her fib once it had left her mouth.

Teruteru shook his head. A few stray hairs from his bangs fell out of place. At first he sounded insulted, only to change his tone mid-sentence to a perverse growl, “You _missed_ dinner? You must have been awfully _busy_ to miss one of my meals…”

“I w-was writing…” Touko mumbled, scowling a bit in Teruteru’s general direction.

“Ah yes, writing…” Teruteru tapped his chin, “I must admit I’ve perused your novels more than a few times. They are very, very good… but if I might make a suggestion, I would have your characters be a bit more… adventurous…”

Touko sputtered, “D-don’t tell me how to write! I don’t t-tell you how to prepare your shitty food!”

Teruteru’s hand fell from his face. The slightest twinge of an accent crept into his next word, “Shitty?”

Byakuya interrupted with a pointed glare at Touko, “The two of us will need to use this kitchen to prepare our individual fare and then we will be on our way.”

Teruteru paused. He glanced back and forth between the two of them as Byakuya’s last remark dissolved into silence.

“I see, I see…” he finally said, voice nearly a whisper. He brought out his comb and began to comb back the hairs that had fallen out of place. “Of course you are welcome to use the kitchen facilities for whatever your hearts desire, but as the Super-High-School-Level Chef, I must insist that I _supervise_ …”

The corners of Byakuya’s mouth fell slightly.

“That is all-right, isn’t it? After all, I’m sure that you’ll agree that it is the _variety_ of the ingredients that makes the dish. This could be a grand opportunity to sample a _three-course meal_ of what I daresay would be the finest caliber.”

Byakuya huffed, “I have no interest in your…”

“You see that drawer over there?” Teruteru directed them with his eyes. “It’s full of all kinds of useful things in case you like to… _improvise_ ….”

“Uh… what’s going on in here?”

Touko jerked and turned, as did Byakuya and Teruteru, to see Makoto Naegi standing in the doorway with an empty plate and glass in his hand. He must have broken the ‘no diningware outside the dining hall’ rule, which frustrated Touko for more reasons than one.

There was an unpleasant silence that hung in the room following Makoto’s question, punctuated only by Teruteru a second later, when Touko and Byakuya were not quick enough on the proverbial ‘draw.’

“Oh ho ho? How about a meal for four, then?”

Before anyone else could move a muscle, Byakuya turned on his heels and stormed out of the kitchen, causing Makoto to nearly drop the dishes and forcing him to move aside with a stunned expression on his face. Touko thought he still looked stunned when she passed him by in the next moment, racing after Byakuya.

She didn’t have too far to go to look for Byakuya, for she found him standing outside the dining hall with his hands clenched by his sides.

“Byakuya-sama?” she called, uncertainly.

“This school…” he growled, in a voice so low Touko wasn’t certain if he was talking to anyone but himself. He suddenly stood to his full height, proclaiming a little louder, “I will not let it best me.”

Touko’s brow furrowed. “Byakuya-sama?” she repeated.

“Fukawa,” he said, turning around, “Are you truly intent on… fulfilling our course… to the fullest possible extent?”

Touko weighed the euphemism carefully and replied, “I… I am…”

Byakuya’s eyes narrowed, “Then I can only think of one solitary place in this school building where our classmates would be loath to settle in and make themselves comfortable…”

\--

About an hour later, Touko sat curled in on herself on an infirmary bed with a thick blanket around her shoulders and Mikan Tsumiki drifting in and out of view. Byakuya stood off at the far wall, with a matching blanket around his waist, refusing to sit down or acknowledge anyone in the room.

“I don’t understand… w-why are you both so cold?” Mikan whined, handing Touko a hot water bottle which she roughly snatched out of her hands.

Touko only glared over the top of Mikan’s head, over to where Kyoko Kirigiri stood with what, among her library of relatively unreadable facial expressions, passed for a smug grin.

“I found them both locked in the biology lab,” Kyoko explained, “It seems they were working on _a project_ together.”


End file.
